The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for introducing objects into a smoking article. For example, the objects may be beads or capsules which are to be introduced into the filter material during manufacture of the filter component of the smoking article.
Smoking articles, for example cigarettes, typically have a rod-shaped structure and include a charge, roll or column of smokable material such as cut tobacco surrounded by a paper wrapper thereby forming a so-called “smokable rod” or “tobacco rod”. A cylindrical filter element is aligned in an end-to-end relationship with the tobacco rod. By way of example, a filter element may include cellulose acetate tow as the filter material (which may have been plasticized), and the tow may be circumscribed by a paper material known as “plug wrap”. The filter element is attached to one end of the tobacco rod using a circumscribing wrapping material known as “tipping paper”.
The sensory attributes of cigarette smoke can be modified by applying additives to the tobacco and/or by otherwise incorporating flavoring materials into various components of the cigarette. For example, one well-known type of tobacco-flavoring additive is menthol.
Various proposed methods for modifying the sensory attributes of cigarette smoke involve using filter elements as vehicles for adding flavor to the mainstream smoke in the cigarette. For example, it has been suggested to introduce objects such as beads or capsules into the filter material during manufacture of the filter elements.
Various apparatuses have been suggested for the introduction of such objects into the filter material during manufacture of filter elements. Examples of such apparatuses are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,905, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,115,085 and in WO-A-2007/038053.
In the apparatus described in WO-A-2007/038053, the objects to be inserted into the filter material are provided in a reservoir in the form of an upper hopper. A lower hopper is connected to the lower end of the upper hopper. A reciprocating bar having a plurality of vertically extending passageways separates the upper and lower hopper and provides for controlled feed of objects from the upper hopper to the lower hopper through the passageways. The lower hopper is shaped to arrange the objects in multiple rows formed one on top of another. The open bottom of the lower hopper extends over a portion of a rotating wheel comprising individual pockets in which single objects become positioned through gravitational force and can be retained with the aid of vacuum applied to the pocket. The objects retained in the pockets are then transferred through rotation of the rotating wheel to the location where they are to be inserted into a filter material. Release of the objects from the individual pocket and introduction of the objects into the filter material is performed by applying a blast of air to the pocket at a desired time.
There is a particular need in the mass manufacture of cigarette filters that objects be introduced into the filter material at a high speed and in a reliable manner. More generally, there is a need to introduce such objects into a smoking article.